


Naming This

by djhedy



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: ...that's it really, Children, Cute, Family, Foxes, M/M, Post-Canon, Stuff, Vague Tags, adopting a cat, and things, cat!, there'll be a cat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25192327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djhedy/pseuds/djhedy
Summary: It’s Christmas, which means Foxes. It means going back to Palmetto, heart in his lungs because he’s about to see his family again. Andrew is meeting him in the car they’ve hired for the vacation, and Neil thinks he’s been dawdling in the parking lot from his flight’s early arrival an hour ago if the message he receives when he turns his phone on is anything to go by.where are youNeil smiles at the message as he waits for his luggage.hi to you too-or, a post-canon exploration of found family, and what it means to stay.(feat. a cat.)
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 44
Kudos: 183





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> listen i reeeaaally want to put a predicted chapter count on this, because it's not gonna be all that long, but  
> i know myself  
> and i promised i wouldn't try to guess and get it completely wrong again  
> so  
> length currently UNKNOWN.  
> enjoy x

It’s Christmas, which means Foxes. It means going back to Palmetto, heart in his lungs because he’s about to see his family again. Andrew is meeting him in the car they’ve hired for the vacation, and Neil thinks he’s been dawdling in the parking lot from his flight’s early arrival an hour ago if the message he receives when he turns his phone on is anything to go by.

_where are you_

Neil smiles at the message as he waits for his luggage.

**_hi to you too_**

**_baggage claim_ **

He twirls his phone around in his hand, adjusts the messenger bag over his shoulder. It doesn’t have much in it. Aside from the essentials – boarding pass, wallet, keys (a few keyrings he’s collected from cities he and Andrew have visited together nestled next to a whole bunch of keys he remembers the gifts of vividly: court keys, his apartment, the safe in his living room, Andrew’s apartment, Abby and Wymack’s house, and for some reason Matt and Dan’s apartment; Neil absolutely hadn’t frowned down at the key in his hand for a full minute when he’d been gifted that one) – some information for Kevin, a magazine, a notepad and pen, his exy ball. Oh. An energy bar he forgot to eat. He opens his bag now, looks down at the forgotten snack and closes it again. Christmas means so much food he can barely move, one day where he’s forgotten to eat much again won’t matter in the long run.

He likes the bag though. A present from Andrew. Black, anonymous, with a single orange stripe near one end.

His phone buzzes.

_how much extra did you have to pay for yours_

Neil smiles. Texts back

**_ha ha_**

**_shouldn’t be long_ **

**** _did I ask_

Neil puts his phone away, grabs his suitcase when it finally comes around and makes his way out the airport. To Andrew.

There’s a strange silence in the car, at first. There always is, and to Neil it’s one of their traditions, something heavy and necessary that he wouldn’t trade for anything.

It’s like getting used to each other, again.

He remembers the next part, too, the part that sometimes comes after the stilted drive, sometimes standing against the car, sometimes in one of their kitchens, sometimes taking an entire day to get there and it’s not until the question of sleep comes up, Neil using asking where he should go in that way he knows will get him glared at, Andrew grabbing his hand and directing.

Neil smiles out the window.

“What.”

Neil turns his head, looks at Andrew properly, and says, “It’s just good to see you.”

Andrew tries to look unimpressed, tries to direct the sentiment at Neil, but something seems to soften on his face too, and he just manages a frown before snatching Neil’s hand out his lap and holding it over the console, between them.

With the silence broken Neil gets comfy, leans back and locks his fingers more firmly with Andrew’s and says, “We going straight to Wymack’s?”

Andrew shakes his head, and Neil tries to wait for elaboration. Andrew likes being asked questions though, and Neil has missed him too much. He looks away, smiling, and says, “Where are we going?”

“You hungry?”

Neil nods. Looks back at the side of Andrew’s face.

They park round the back of some diner, and Andrew takes him in his hands and kisses him until his lips are numb.

Afterwards they eat stacks of pancakes, and Andrew makes Neil ask for extra syrup, and then steals it, and Neil kicks his ankle under the table, and breathes in deep with the knowledge he’s _home_.

They kiss some more in the backseat of the car and Neil grins against Andrew’s lips, comfy with Andrew’s arms wrapped around him, and says, “Now are you ready to go to Abby’s?”

And Andrew nods with his eyes closed, kisses him one more time, and says, “Now.”

They pull into Abby’s driveway and, just inside the door, are assaulted with the usual chaos.

It’s the weekend before Christmas, as is tradition. Foxmas, Neil called it once, and it had been adopted instantly, and Abby and Wymack always hosted in their new house, and they always invited Bee, and the team from Neil’s first year, and Neil looked forward to it every year.

But this year, his first year on a pro team, away from Andrew and his family and everyone he’d known for the last five years, he needs it like oxygen.

He lets Matt bear hug him, and Dan squeeze him round the middle, smiles as Renee and Andrew drift toward each other, surprises Nicky from behind and grins under his enthusiastic attention and hair pats and, finally, hugging each other with familiar warmth. He shakes Erik’s firm hand, does a more complicated handshake with Allison, fist-bumps Aaron, and receives an arm-round-the-neck-hug from Katelyn.

It’s all so achingly familiar.

Most of the foxes are staying at a hotel for the weekend, but as Neil, Andrew, Aaron and Kevin are staying for Christmas day too, they divide the spare rooms between them.

When Wymack and Abby had first moved in together, had first admitted they were a thing and put up with the catcalls and comments until Wymack had glared and shouted at them and no one had said anything again, they decided to buy a house.

Wymack had picked Neil up one morning some time in his third year, Andrew tagging along and dragging Kevin with them, and they’d piled into Wymack’s truck and pulled up outside a big house in the suburbs.

Neil had frowned out the window. “Doesn’t seem like your kind of thing, coach,” he said, remembering Wymack’s messy bachelor’s pad.

“It’s not,” Wymack said, turning the engine off. They all got out and Wymack unlocked the front door, and Kevin and Andrew instantly went inside, Kevin showing him around like he’d been there before and the two of them arguing over where things should go in the kitchen. Neil was hesitant on the threshold, and Wymack had turned to him and said, “There’s a room for you, kid,” and handed him a key.

Neil had stared at it, and then at Wymack, and said, “What about Kevin?”

“It’s a four bed,” Wymack said easily, turning away and following after Andrew and Kevin, the distant sounds of him shouting at them in the kitchen like a gentle heartbeat in Neil’s ears.

The key was threaded onto his keyring, alongside the others, and Neil knew he would always have a room here.

He wanders into the kitchen to find Abby at the stove, Wymack and Kevin sat round the table, all three heads turning at his appearance.

“Last to arrive,” says Wymack with a fond gruff.

Abby smiles. “I’m making hot chocolate.”

Kevin eyes him. “Neil! Hi. Have you brought your dietary requirements?”

Neil pulls the prepared piece of paper out of his messenger bag, hands it to Kevin, smirks at Wymack, and lets Abby pull him in for a hug, knowing all the time that Andrew is at his back.

There’s the usual secret santa and too much food and trying to fit too many people into too few dining chairs and armchairs and sofas and floor spaces. There’s chaos, and laughter, and smoke breaks in the garden, and nap breaks in their bed, Andrew and Neil piled on top of each other and saying nothing about how many weeks it’s been since they were last together – 9 – and Andrew going for a night walk with Betsy, Renee and Dan, and Neil letting Allison play with his hair while they watch movies.

Wymack and Abby go to bed, and the walkers get back, and Betsy bids everyone goodnight and leaves to go home, and everyone’s just sat around talking about nothing when it comes up, Andrew sitting on the floor by Neil, knee to knee, Nicky sleepy behind Neil in Erik’s lap, his feet resting on Neil’s shoulder.

Renee says, “I can never eat again.”

“I can,” says Nicky, muffled from Erik’s shoulder.

“We can go for a run tomorrow,” says Kevin, and Neil perks up at the suggestion.

Andrew grabs his hand. “It’s Christmas,” he says, sternly, and Kevin and Neil’s expressions droop.

“Speaking of...” Matt looks at Dan with wide eyes.

Dan laughs, and grips his arm. “How is that ‘speaking of’?”

Matt shrugs. “It isn’t. I’m bored. Can we tell them?”

Allison says, “Oh my god I’m about to win _so much money_ ,” and Aaron groans because he’s about to lose so much money, and Dan barely gets out that she’s pregnant before there’s whooping and congratulations and Kevin hushing everyone panickedly and Dan assuring them she told Wymack and Abby that morning, and Kevin insisting that was not the point they were _sleeping_.

Neil and Andrew stay on the floor, but Neil grins at them and lets Matt pull him up and off his feet and into a bone-crushing hug. He says, “Well, congratulations?” as he’s set back on his feet.

Matt says, “Thanks man,” and looks the happiest Neil’s ever seen him.

“Are you going to get married?” Katelyn asks, leaning against Aaron’s side, the rings on their fingers glinting in the low light of the room.

Dan waves a hand, unconcerned. “Sure. Allison?”

Allison gets to her feet. “Present!”

“Can you arrange us some sort of wedding?”

“ _That_ I can do.” Allison gets her phone out and starts typing rapidly.

Dan pulls Renee into a hug and asks her to be her maid of honour and Renee’s eyes fill with tears, and Allison reminds her she’s only being asked because Allison is the only one capable of planning the thing, and the three of them are hugging and giggling and Neil turns to Andrew to ask if he’s ready to go to bed.

“Do you think you might get married some day?”

Neil only thinks it might be him that’s being addressed because no one else answers the question. He looks round and finds Katelyn looking at him expectantly, noticing Aaron going all stiff and uninterested next to her, staring down at the mug of tea in his hands as if he’s not listening intently.

Neil frowns at her. “Me? Why?”

Katelyn looks awkward. “Oh. Um. Uh...”

“Because it’s fun,” says Matt, dropping back onto the sofa and hugging Dan to his chest. “Probably. I mean, the staying together forever bit is the really fun bit,” he adds, kissing Dan on the head.

“No it isn’t,” Allison says with a stern look on her face. “Monogamy is just the price you pay for a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime party.”

They’re looking at Neil again, and Neil isn’t looking at Andrew, and he says, “Probably not.”

“That’s ok,” says Katelyn quickly. “I didn’t mean to -” but Aaron interrupts, a hand on her knee.

“Kids, then?” He says the words like it’s casual, unplanned, like he isn’t jumping on any opportunity to grill them where Andrew can’t commit violence.

He’s obviously forgotten what Andrew’s like when pushed.

Neil sighs, tired. “I don’t understand why this is interesting.”

Andrew is decidedly disinterested next to him, and as Renee jumps in to ask Katelyn and Aaron about their own plans – getting through med school first, and then lots of babies, apparently – Neil watches Andrew.

He keeps watching him as they wash up plates, grab water, leave the others quietly and head upstairs, and take turns in the bathroom, and fall into bed next to each other, and it occurs to Neil that Andrew is being too quiet.

“You ok?” he asks, as Andrew turns the lamp off and turns to face him.

“Mm-hmm,” says Andrew, nosing along Neil’s cheek.

Neil grins, and pulls him closer by the waist. “Stop distracting me.”

“From what?”

“You know from what.” Andrew stills, and huffs, and pulls the blankets up to their chins, and taps Neil on the shoulder. Neil turns around at the silent command and lets Andrew hug him to his chest. But after a minute, he says, “You were quiet tonight.” Andrew hums, not exactly an acknowledgement, but not a refusal either. “Do you – I always thought you said you didn’t want–”

“Not tonight,” whispers Andrew. “Another time.”

“Ok,” says Neil easily, filing it away in his head and letting Andrew mouth along his neck until they’re both asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heeeeeyyyyyyyyyy xxx

Neil never thought he would get to the point of enjoying Christmas, the point where saying goodbye would hurt a little.

Andrew is last, and they drive to the airport together and drop the car off and stand in arrivals, staring at the board, going through security in comfortable silence, and then go to sit at Andrew’s gate, as his plane leaves a little before Neil’s.

Neil sighs, and Andrew pokes him in the cheek. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I hate this.”

Andrew hums, and threads in fingers into Neil’s, and holds on tight. It’s him saying the same thing, and in public, and Neil cheers up for all of two seconds. “Just remind me.”

“Five weeks, you have no game that weekend.”

“What if you do.”

“Then you’ll come to me.”

Neil nods, and sinks in his chair a little, and pulls Andrew’s hand into his lap. “Ok.”

And then it’s time for Andrew to board, and they’re very in public, so Neil just lets his hand go and gives him a look.

Andrew touches two fingers to his burn scar on his cheek, and then abruptly stands and walks off.

Neil isn’t sure he and Andrew have ever had an argument. Not a serious one, anyway. Or maybe they’re serious to Andrew: there are the ones where Neil forgets to leave a note, or take his phone; Andrew isn’t completely possessive, and Neil doesn’t always tell him what he’s doing, but that’s only fine up to a point when your boyfriend has previously been known to get himself kidnapped by the mafia and related parties. But those arguments are always just Andrew spewing hate at Neil until Neil can find a way to soften his panic.

Neil still feels that same instinct to let Andrew know where he is, and if he’s ok, even though now they’re hundreds of miles away.

And there were the arguments before they were anything, before they trusted each other with anything at all.

But Neil doesn’t count those, and he doesn’t think they’ve argued about real things in years.

They always just want to do whatever the other wants to do. He thinks they sort of unconsciously take it in turns. Ice cream, or a road trip, or napping, or a video game, or going to bed, or a walk, or bed, or movies, or just lying in bed for hours. Sometimes even exy.

They just take each other as they come.

So Neil is kind of worried when he gets home from practise one day to a message that just says _call me._ Andrew never messages with that. He usually calls in a passive aggressive way when he knows Neil’s busy, as a way to get Neil to call him back later. Neil wonders what Andrew’s trying to prepare him for.

He takes his phone out and flops on his sofa, hand twitching in his lap until Andrew answers, “Hi.”

“Hey,” says Neil. “I just got home. Everything ok?”

Andrew hums, and Neil just waits.

And then Andrew says, “How do you feel about cats?”

Neil frowns, and adjusts his position, and says, “Why?” And then, when Andrew doesn’t elaborate, “I don’t think I feel any way about cats.”

Andrew huffs. “Why am I not surprised.”

“Should I feel a way about cats?”

“Most people are divided.”

“Are they?” Neil settles in, smiling. He loves it when Andrew is weird.

“Either they’re adorable or irritating.”

“So where are you on the scale?”

“A little of column A, a little of column B...”

Neil’s eyes widen. “Did you just admit to finding something adorable?”

“It was a joke.”

Neil grins and lies flat on his sofa. “No it wasn’t. So. Cats huh. I didn’t think you liked anything.”

“I _don’t._ ”

“Sure. If you had a cat what would you call it? Do you have a notebook of names you’ve been keeping?”

“I would call it Cat.”

“Like how you call me Neil.”

“It’s more descriptive, like how I call you a pain in the ass.”

“That makes more sense.”

“You never had a pet?”

“Nope.” Neil’s past doesn’t hurt anymore, not really, but he still doesn’t really like to elaborate.

“Yeah,” says Andrew.

“You?”

“A few homes,” says Andrew, just as abruptly.

Neil hums, and tries to work out where Andrew is going with this. “Does one of your team mates have a cat?”

“Probably,” says Andrew dismissively, and then changes the topic.

A week later Andrew sends him a photo of a cat. It’s a white, fluffy thing, and Neil messages back **_is this a test_**

_yes_

_**am i supposed to say it’s cute**_

**** _you’re supposed to say what’s in your heart_

_**very little honestly**_

**** _how could i forget_

Neil grins, and puts his phone down.

Andrew is more open about his apparent cat obsession after that. Sometimes when they’re messaging late at night, too tired for spoken conversation, Andrew will send him a cat video he’s watched that for some reason he thinks necessary to send to Neil. Neil will watch the video with a sceptical expression and reply **_big deal, i could make that jump too_**

**** _do you have your own youtube channel though_

_**i could do**_

**** _you don’t even know what youtube is_

_**yes i do it’s this thing you keep sending me**_

Or the one time over the phone when Andrew tells Neil the story of how his teammate’s housebound cat had escaped and hidden in their car’s engine, and got itself trapped.

“See?” says Neil, poking around his cupboards to find something to eat with the phone balanced between his cheek and his shoulder. “Cats are stupid.”

“I dunno, sounds a lot like you,” Andrew says.

Sometimes, floating in the back of Neil’s mind, he’ll remember things he’s not dealing with. He’s getting better at not blocking out his own problems by focusing on others’ – though he has a plan to get his team mate Sarah to call her fucking father on his birthday, because he knows she wants to and she knows she wants to and it’s distracting her on court – but this is kind of a him and Andrew problem, and that’s a little new.

He knows there was something weird at Christmas, when the foxes were talking about getting married and having children, and Neil had brushed it off, unbothered and inconsequential, expecting Andrew to do the same, surprised to see that studied disconnect back in his expression.

He knows, it just – hasn’t come up yet.

A few days before Neil is due to visit Andrew he calls and says, “I’ve booked my flights.”

“Neil.”

“What, it’s fine.”

“I thought you did that weeks ago, when I asked.”

“I said I _would_. Now I have.”

“Useless.”

“Anyway, are you picking me up?”

“Have I ever not?”

“I’ve only visited you once, it could have been a honeymoon period thing.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t. It’s merely practical. Who knows how many scars you could pick up between the airport and my apartment.”

“Hey. You like my scars.”

“I do not.”

“You think I’m, and I quote, _a pretty landscape._ ”

Andrew huffs, and Neil hops up onto the counter in his kitchen, enjoying himself.

“One day I’m beating that memory out of you,” Andrew finally says.

“Ok,” says Neil cheerfully. “Anyway I get in at 11am on Friday, that’s enough time before your game right? Can I come?”

“Yes,” says Andrew, easy, and that too is new, a reluctant acceptance that this is their lives now.

“Good. What else do you wanna do?”

Andrew is quiet again, and Neil tucks one foot under his knee, stretching out a little. “I mean, we can do nothing,” Neil says. “I like doing nothing. I just wondered.”

“Neil.”

Neil straightens. “What?”

“I want – we should – have a conversation.”

His words are stilted, and Neil frowns, and says, “About what?”

“This weekend.”

“Why can’t we have it now?”

Andrew sighs. “Stop talking.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, you overdramatic –” Andrew stops talking, perhaps afraid Neil will invoke pot calling the kettle black, which he absolutely will, but instead he waits, frowning at his knee and stretching it out against the counter again, then swapping legs. Then Andrew says, “Fine. I want to get a cat.”

Neil looks up, as if there’s something to look up at, as if Andrew was there and he could look at him all he wanted, determine what was expected of him. “Oh. Ok.”

“Ok?”

“I mean. It’s your apartment.”

“Right.”

“I don’t see why anyone would want a cat, honestly, but you can do whatever you want.”

“I see.”

“Why are you being weird?”

“Adopting a cat is a commitment, Neil.”

“Yeah? So? You’ll be great at that, you love taking broken things under your wing.”

“I don’t _love_ it, I’m _stuck_ with you.”

“Hilarious.”

“Neil.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m getting a cat then.”

Neil stops stretching. “Ok. Do you need help researching or something?”

Andrew huffs again, and hangs up.

They both know Neil is the one who is terrible at homework, and computers, and absorbing information by reading, generally. He’s more intuitive, he prefers numbers, and thinking, and observing. But the day before he flies out to Andrew he googles ‘cats’. Too many results. He googles ‘getting a cat’ and that narrows it down a little, and he finds a list called ‘what to think about when you’re getting a cat’, and reads it, and then calls Matt.

“Hey!” Matt says. “My favourite Neil. What’s up?”

“Do you refer to me like that around your teammate?”

“No, you’re just Neil. He’s called least favourite Neil.”

“I bet he likes that.”

Matt laughs, easy as always, and Neil smiles a little, still looking at his laptop screen. “So, what’s up?”

“What do you know about cats.”

“Um. Well. Some? Why?”

“I think Andrew wants to get one.”

“Oh my god, seriously?”

“I know.”

“No offence to Andrew but he doesn’t really seem –” Matt trails off.

“I know,” Neil agrees, because he gets that Andrew doesn’t to most people. Even Neil is struggling to put together this new version of Andrew that apparently finds cats cute enough that the gallery on Neil’s phone is now filled with automatically saved photos and videos of the things.

“Ok, well, what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know anything about cats,” Neil says.

“Ok.”

“And Andrew was being weird.”

“Yeah?”

Neil doesn’t like to admit when he needs help reading Andrew. He has a degree in it. It’s his favourite thing to study, and he doesn’t really mind that he’s the sole student in it. He minds for Andrew, but not really for himself. But he doesn’t fucking know anything about cats.

“How so?”

Neil thinks about it. “The way he told me. Instead of just, doing it, I guess.”

“You expected him to just get a cat without telling you?”

“Why would he?”

“Cats are a commitment, Neil.”

Neil sits up. “That’s what he said!”

“No, I mean like, cats can live up to like fifteen years, man.”

“So?”

“So, what if Andrew has a cat for fifteen years. Aren’t you guys probably going to live together at some point? Then you’d have a cat too. That’s probably why he was asking.”

Neil almost feels his lips comically round as he says, “Oh,” and then, “Oh _shit_.”

“Yeah.”

“So maybe he thought I didn’t care because I don’t –”

“Exactly.”

“Well why didn’t he just tell me that.”

“You guys aren’t the best at communication.”

Neil glares a little at an invisible Matt. They all think that, but it isn’t actually true. Him and Andrew talk about the things they need to, and don’t talk when they don’t. It’s easy, and a good system, and all that’s happened here is Neil has failed to understand the difference. It doesn’t usually happen. “Right. Thanks Matt.” He goes to hang up, like he would with Andrew, and then remembers to say, “Bye.”

He does some googling and finds a photo of a cat to send Andrew; it’s white and black, a blond mop above its eyes and black legs, and he writes _get this one, it looks like you._

Andrew calls instantly. “It does not.”

“Ok then get a ginger one, it will remind you of me when I’m not there.”

“Why would I want that.”

“Can I help you pick one out?”

Andrew is quiet, and shuffling around, and Neil lets him, concentrating, and alert, and wanting to get this right. “Why would you want that.”

“Well. Someday it’s going to be my cat too.” Neil swallows. “Right?”

The shuffling stops, and Andrew breathes out, and says, “In your dreams. You don’t even like cats.”

“Hey, that’s not the point. I want it in my contract that I get partial cat ownership when we live together.”

Andrew chuckles a little, and it’s a sign that he’s happy, Neil knows that, and he knows how rare it is, and he shuffles happily on the sofa, and lets Andrew talk about the cat adoption place near his apartment, and how Neil is not to misbehave while they’re there, and to let Andrew do all the talking, and Neil comments on how that won’t be enough to get past hello, and then Andrew sends him information about cat breeds, and rescues, and what food they eat, and Neil closes his eyes, thinking about how long it might be until he’ll get to live with Andrew and a cat, and taking steady breaths around the thought, and just listening to Andrew talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> getting closer to cat o'clock x

**Author's Note:**

> feels good to be back :D this is really just a short interlude because i'm working on something longer in the background that will start posting soon, but uh, yeah. in the meantime: cats! well, one cat. well, we'll see. xxx


End file.
